Emerging from the laundry swamps and Lego wastelands to keep track of our own insanity.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Big Boy or "Why we love Babee Tenda"

August has made the transition to the kitchen table with a regular chair and forsaken his feeding table. So once again, we've converted the Babee Tenda to a kid table for crafts and projects, meaning our kitchen and dining room tables finally have a chance of staying visible.

When we bought the table back in 2005 it came with one chair, which was great. When Jorge came along, we added a chair for him. Since the table has been in use as a feeding table for the last two years, Katie claimed one chair for her sewing table. So I bought two more to round out the set for all three kids and, when necessary, Katie's chair can join in for a 4-some.

The two newest chairs (shown here: blue and peach; the white-ish one used to be red but was the victim of a toddle-by markering years ago and so I re-covered it) arrived today and I was thinking just how much I LOVE this product and the company. Truly. So let me do a little un-prompted, un-rewarded testimonial.

We discovered Babee Tenda when I was pregnant with Katie and liked the super sturdy products. We ended up buying the crib and feeding table and haven't regretted it once. The table has held up great, other than the plastic foot tray on the inner seat cracking with all three kids (we replaced it each time; they just all like to swing their feet hard). The table converts easily from a table (with either dry erase or chalk surface) to a baby seat with semi-reclining chair to a more upright high chair and then to an at-the-table booster seat. It folds flat like a card table (but way sturdier) and cleans super easily. The only accessories we bought were the quilted high chair covers which make it super easy to toss the chair in the wash after a spill or messy meal. And additional kid chairs.

The kid chairs are GREAT. They're solid metal folding chairs with a nice cushioned seat and back. The cushioned parts are held to the frame with some heavy duty screws which means that if you want you can unscrew them, wrap them in new fabric similar to wrapping a gift (a staple gun helps) and then screw them back on. Done. And they hold a lot of weight. Rob and I use them for step stools all the time to grab something off a top shelf; and we sit on them for the kids' "tea parties" or whatever else is going on. They get a lot of use and abuse and have held up exceptionally well. The table has been in daily use for 7 years now and has just a small crack on one corner from when we dropped it in the driveway once when moving. It rolls easily through all of our narrow-ish doorways. August loves to push it around the house, making "go find the table and bring it into the kitchen" a common part of setting the table for dinner. But it means that it's easy to push it into the dining room or living room if the kids are doing a project elsewhere.

The customer service has been great the few times we've had to call to order something or ask about something. They use regional sales reps who can be hit or miss for sketchy behavior, but the company itself is great. And it's all made in the USA by unioned employees, so there's a nice extra reason to like them!